Who will reach the Grand Slam of Darts semi-finals?

Grand Slam of Darts: Friday's quarter-final predictions, odds, betting tips, order of play & TV times

By Chris Hammer

Darts

Fri November 16, 2018 · 6y ago

Two quarter-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts take place tonight so here's the full order of play, match-by-match predictions, Sky Bet odds and a suggested double from Chris Hammer.

Nine-dart hero Dimitri van den Bergh, who brought the Aldersley Leisure Village crowd to its feet on Wednesday night with an amazing perfect leg, is back on the oche tonight as he faces Mensur Suljovic in the first quarter-final while Simon Whitlock is up against Gerwyn Price in the other.

It's a huge opportunity for all four PDC players, who have never reached the last four of this prestigious major, and they may even be guilty of getting carried away about thoughts of Sunday's final.

Here, I'll run through every game, while there's a reminder of all the group standings and tournament results at the bottom.

Grand Slam of Darts: Friday November 16

Click on the odds for more Sky Bet match markets

TV Coverage: Sky Sports (7pm GMT)
Quarter-Finals: Best of 31 legs

Dimitri van den Bergh (6/4) v Mensur Suljovic (8/15)

Group Position: 2nd H - 2nd G
Group Points: 4 - 2
2nd Rd: Van den Bergh bt Bunting (10-6), Suljovic bt Cross (10-7)
Head-to-head: 3-3
2018 Meetings: 0-1

TOURNAMENT STATS
Average: 93.34 - 94.37
180s: 10 - 2
100+ Checkouts: 3 - 3
High Checkout: 141 - 121
Checkout percentage: 35.71% (20/56) - 47.83% (22/46)
Legs Won/Lost: 20/15 - 22/19

Dimitri van den Bergh is probably still on cloud nine following his nine-dart heroics on Wednesday night, which thankfully for him happened so late in the game when he had a commanding lead that it didn't affect his chances.

The World Youth champion, who defends that title later this month, was jubilantly shocked afterwards to achieve such a feat but now he must refocus on one of the biggest matches of his young career tonight.

Apart from that gruelling and epic World Championship quarter-final with Rob Cross last year, this will be the longest televised match he's been involved in - best-of-31 legs against the slow, meticulous throwing Mensur Suljovic.

They have met once this year on TV which was also in front of 20,000 people at the spectacular German Darts Masters, with the Austrian defeating him 8-2 in the final at Gelsenkirchen.

Suljovic was playing much better during that period of the season and went on to reach that epic World Matchplay final later that summer but recently he's not really been firing on all cylinders.

Even at this event he lost a pair of group matches in scraping through to the quarter-finals, where he was much better against Rob Cross, but even so he's now failed to hit a single 180 in his last two matches (26 legs)!

I do think his experience of the longer format and his mental stamina will be key against such a bright young talent so I'll back him at -3.5 legs on the handicap at 5/4.

Prediction: 11-16

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Simon Whitlock (1/1) v Gerwyn Price (4/5)

Group Position: 2nd F - 1st F
Group Points: 4 - 4
2nd Rd: Whitlock bt Wright (10-6), Price bt Payne (10-5)
Head-to-head: 6-5
2018 Meetings: 3-2

TOURNAMENT STATS
Average: 97.15 - 96.71
180s: 8 - 12
100+ Checkouts: 4 - 2
High Checkout: 170 (x2) - 130
Checkout percentage: 40.38% (21/52) - 43.64% (24/55)
Legs Won/Lost: 21/17 - 24/19

It's somewhat surprising to consider Simon Whitlock as the slight outsider for this match because overall I feel he's had the stronger tournament, despite that awful start against Glen Durrant.

The Wizard lost 5-1 to the two-time BDO world champion but then bounced back to beat Andrew Gilding before nailing two 170 checkouts in that stunning 5-4 triumph over Gerwyn Price which saw him finish runner-up to the Welshman in Group F.

The Aussie, who was recently runner-up at the European Championship, then produced a solid display to upset Peter Wright which certainly holds more gravitas than Price's triumph over the inexperienced Josh Payne.

Whitlock can have his off days but right now he's enjoying a purple patch at this stage of his career and as well as Price has been playing, I'm backing him to defeat him for the fourth time in 2018.

As well as Whitlock to win at evens, I'm also going for the match to have over 27.5 legs, a high checkout of over 140.5 and more than 14.5 180s. That can be backed at 9/2.

Prediction: Whitlock 16-13 Price

Saturday night's quarter-finals are Gary Anderson v Michael Unterbuchner and Jonny Clayton v Michael van Gerwen so check back to www.sportinglife.com/darts in the morning for a full preview!

The semi-finals are on Sunday afternoon, with the final in the evening. It's all live on Sky Sports.

Friday night's suggested darts bets

Suljovic (-3.5 legs) to beat van den Bergh at 5/4
Whitlock v Price to have over 27.5 legs, a high checkout of over 140.5 & more than 14.5 180s at 9/2
Whitlock to beat Price at 1/1
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